Month: January 2011

The Artful Life: 10 Crafty Tips to Boost a Child’s Self-Confidence and Improve Academic Performance: #5

Categories: Art Education, family, The Artful Life

As parents, we strive to help our children grow up to be healthy, productive adults. Times are changing faster than ever, and parents are working harder to make ends meet. With constant introduction to new technology, as individuals and as a family, we have more choices than we’ve ever had before. So how do we stay focused and ensure we give our children the best upbringing possible? In this series we will share some tips we have found that help children develop a positive self image, and encourage success in the classroom.

#5: Volunteer in the Classroom

Image by missyxlovesxyou via Flickr

I am not going to lie to you, this could be one of the most difficult tasks on the list (for us, it’s harder than giving up the cable!)  If you have school-age children, one of the most important things you can do is to get yourself into that classroom!  Why is this hard?  Because when you are dual-income family, there is always work to be done! Even if one of you stays home, there is always work to be done!

However, if you don’t spend time in class, three things don’t happen:

1) Your children don’t see you valuing the time in the classroom.  When they see you take time out of your day to assist in their class, they get the message that this is an important place to be!

2) You don’t get to know the teacher and the methods of teaching in the class.  Support your teacher, and she/he will support you!  This is a very important relationship to have.  You will also get a chance to understand the curriculum and the schedule in class. 

3) You don’t get to know the other kids in your child’s class.  These days, it is getting impossibly hard to have consistent social interaction with classmates outside of school.  Kids are busy with all kinds of different activities, and it’s hard to match up schedules. So how do you know how to encourage your child to build relationships if you don’t know who the other kids are? Most kids are great; I love getting to know different children and having the opportunity to work with them.  However, some children are a discipline problem in class, and since I know that, I can encourage my child to make different choices. (And when it’s my child acting out-of-line, I can be on top of it!)

How do you get involved with your child’s academic time?

Stay-tuned for tip #6 tomorrow! Did you miss the first tips? Start here

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The Artful Life: 10 Crafty Tips to Boost a Child’s Self-Confidence and Improve Academic Performance: #1

Categories: family, The Artful Life

As parents, we strive to help our children grow up to be healthy, productive adults.  Times are changing faster than ever, and parents are working harder to make ends meet.  With constant introduction to new technology, as individuals and as a family, we have more choices than we’ve ever had before.  So how do we stay focused and ensure we give our children the best upbringing possible?  In this series we will share some tips we have found that help children develop a positive self image, and encourage success in the classroom.

#1: Kill the TV



image by George Foster, via Flickr


No you don’t have to leave it by the side of the road, and you don’t have to live without television all together, but have you looked at your cable bill?  Not only can you cut some cost from the family budget here, but you can add some serious time to the family schedule!  If you are a die-hard sports fan (and most of us are) this will be really hard, but what if you tried living without cable just long enough to re-qualify for that promotional rate? There’s a lot of great things to view on television, but there’s also a lot of junk.  Even with the convenience of TiVo and DVR, it’s likely there are a lot of TVs broadcasting a lot of different things around the house. 

Take control of your television by watching the shows and movies you want, when you want to watch them.  Catch your news and sports scores on the internet and radio.  For TV series and movies, instant downloads from Netflix, and DVDs purchased or rented from the library will surprise you with their immense selection.   Give kids a break from comparing themselves to the kids on TV, and comparing their stuff with what they see in advertisements.  Try watching TV with no commercials and only at designated times of the day. 

Too extreme? What do you think?

Stay-tuned for tip #2 tomorrow!

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The Artful Life: 10 Crafty Tips to Boost a Child’s Self-Confidence and Improve Academic Performance: #8

Categories: family, galleries, The Artful Life

As parents, we strive to help our children grow up to be healthy, productive adults. Times are changing faster than ever, and parents are working harder to make ends meet. With constant introduction to new technology, as individuals and as a family, we have more choices than we’ve ever had before. So how do we stay focused and ensure we give our children the best upbringing possible? In this series we will share some tips we have found that help children develop a positive self image, and encourage success in the classroom.

#8: “Oh the Places You’ll Go!” 

Image by infinitewhite, via Flickr


Children can only learn about the world around them when they get out and see it, smell it, and feel it.  Of course we all think vacations are good, but exploring a bit closer to home is great too!  Even if you don’t live in a city with museums and attractions close by, you can create deeply meaningful experiences for children (this is one of my favorite articles about that).  Excursions into the world develops their awareness, improves their social skills, increases their communication abilities and contributes to their sense of pride and accomplishment. Make their experiences away from home as diverse as possible.  It’s great to take children to kid-oriented places like the park, the zoo, McDonald’s, where they can just be kids and roam free.  However, sometimes they really need to experience more grownup settings, like an Art Gallery or Museum Exhibit, or even a fine dining restaurant (the kind that doesn’t have plastic lids and straws for drinks!)  It’s hard on parents to venture to destinations like this with children, but how will they learn to love these places if you don’t teach them?  If you are taking them to something like a museum exhibit, prepare them in advance by reading books, watching videos and playing games on the subject (you can usually find a great selection of resources at your local library).  This helps kids develop an interest, which prepares them to behave appropriately when they see it in person!

Where do you love taking your children?

Stay tuned for tip #9 tomorrow! Did you miss the earlier tips?  Start here

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